Male Perceptions of Intimacy: A Qualitative Study

Patrick, Shawn; Beckenbach, John

doi:10.3149/jms.1701.47

Cited by 41 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…'Men' are no longer as confined to the instrumental public role Parsons and Bales (1956) identified as complimenting 'women's' private emotionally expressive role. Recent research has noted that for young heterosexual men, in particular, gender is done in ways that combine more 'traditional' forms of masculinity with a newer cultural emphasis on emotional expression within intimate relationships (Allen 2007;Patrick and Beckenbach 2009). This is arguably part of a convergence between heterosexual and non-heterosexual forms of intimacy (Weeks et al 2001;Roseneil 2005), although some claim that gay culture still tends to separate sex from emotional intimacy (Hurley 2003).…”

Section: Masculinity Emotion Work and Intimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Men’s Emotions

Holmes

2015

Men and Masculinities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper focuses on the underresearched topic of how masculinity relates to emotional forms of caring within heterosexual relationships. Both scholarly and common sense thinking, often present heterosexual male partners as unable and/or unwilling to do emotion work, leaving women burdened with this task. However, contemporary relational complexity increasingly requires emotional reflexivity. Such reflexivity entails interpretations of one's own and others' emotions, and acting in light of those interpretations. The question here is to what extent and how that emotional reflexivity might effect a reshaping of heteromasculinity towards more caring forms of emotionality? Drawing on interviews with heterosexual couples in distance relationships, it is argued that emotional reflexivity may produce a variety of ways of relationally gendering emotions. Those who seem to adhere to ideas of men as emotionally restricted may claim tactile forms of emotional expression. However, there may be limitations to these forms in certain circumstances and this may see a reflexive reorientation of heteromasculine emotionalities towards more verbal forms of support. The point of seeking to illustrate that masculinity and emotionality are open to such reflexive shifts is to debunk essentialist views of gendered emotionality which undermine efforts to achieve greater gender equality in intimate life.

show abstract

Section: Masculinity Emotion Work and Intimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Men’s Emotions

Holmes

2015

Men and Masculinities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Contrary to the traditional view of emotional support and intimacy as the dimension of a relationship primarily created and sustained by women (Duncombe & Mardsen, 1993;Impett & Peplau, 2006), recent research, carried out in culturally diverse populations, suggests that emotions play a crucial role in men's individual and relational well-being (Ferreira, Narciso, & Novo, 2013;Patrick & Beckenbach, 2009;Sandberg, 2013;Štulhofer et al, 2014). With regard to sexuality, Janssen, McBride, Yarber, Hill, and Butler (2008) showed that for a majority of their male participants ''emotional connection with their sexual partner contributed to, and sometimes was central to'' sexual arousal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Emotional Intimacy Among Coupled Heterosexual and Gay/Bisexual Croatian Men: Assessing the Role of Minority Stress

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emotional intimacy cuts across contexts as diverse as sexual motivation and satisfaction, psychological and physical health, and relational well-being. Although the experience of intimacy and its effects on sex life may be gender and sexual orientation-specific, the role of intimacy in personal and sexual relationships has been studied mostly among heterosexual individuals and couples. Using the minority stress framework (Meyer, 2003) to address this gap in knowledge, the present study comparatively explored levels and predictors/correlates of emotional intimacy, and its association with sexual satisfaction among coupled heterosexual and gay/bisexual men sampled online in a predominantly homonegative country (Croatia). Heterosexual participants (n = 860; M age = 36.4, SD = 9.09) were recruited in 2011 and gay/bisexual participants (n = 250; M age = 29.4, SD = 7.13) in 2013. Controlling for age and relationship duration, gay/bisexual men reported higher levels of emotional intimacy than heterosexual men. Suggesting that the role of emotional intimacy in sexual satisfaction is not sexual orientation-specific, the strength of the association between these two constructs was similar in both samples. However, internalized homonegativity, which was negatively associated with emotional intimacy in this study, remains a challenge to creating and maintaining intimacy in male same-sex relationships.

show abstract

“…The literature has historically shown intimacy and sexual desire have positive associations with relationship satisfaction and marital stability. The amount of sexual satisfaction in marriage has been argued to be a barometer of the couple's marital satisfaction (Huston & Vangelisti, 1991;McNulty et al, 2015), a predictor of stability in intimate relationships (Carpenter et al, 2007), and vital to well-being (Patrick & Beckenbach, 2009). Methodologically disparate studies report a decrease in sexual satisfaction as one ages (Booth, Johnson, & Edwards, 1983;Carpenter et al, 2007;Edwards & Booth, 1994;Haavio-Mannila & Kontula, 1997).…”

Section: Sexual Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sexual interest. Intimacy and sexual desire have been linked to higher satisfaction in the relationship (Carpenter et al, 2007;Huston & Vangelisti, 1991;McNulty et al, 2015;Patrick & Beckenbach, 2009) and lower marital instability (Yeh et al, 2006;Lehrer , 2006). Inconsistent findings have not elucidated gender differences (Heller & Wood, 1998;Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994;Liu, 2003).…”

Section: Socioemotional Behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Marital Stability in Remarriages

Bean

Ledermann

Higginbotham

et al. 2019

Journal of Divorce & Remarriage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nearly half of adults in the U.S. indicated they had a close step-relative that included stepparents, stepchildren, and other close relationships. The prevalence of stepfamilies is rapidly increasing and represents a population that remains largely understudied. This study explored the roles of socioemotional behaviors (positivity, negativity, and sexual interest) on marital stability for different remarriage constellations (depending which of the couple, both partners, or neither had previous children). This study uses dyadic relationship data from 879 couples. It was hypothesized that positivity and sexual interest would be inversely related with marital instability, while negativity will be correlated with marital instability.

show abstract

Male Perceptions of Intimacy: A Qualitative Study

Cited by 41 publications

References 18 publications

Men’s Emotions

Men’s Emotions

Emotional Intimacy Among Coupled Heterosexual and Gay/Bisexual Croatian Men: Assessing the Role of Minority Stress

Associations between Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Marital Stability in Remarriages

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About